Battle properties

Characteristics

Defense

Dark-type Pokémon are notable for the fact that they don't have any strong stat trends other than Attack (which is in and of itself modified by a few powerful outliers and slightly ironic as Dark was a special type, not a physical type), but usually have relatively poor defenses, with the exception of Umbreon, Spiritomb, Drapion, Scrafty, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar. Just the same, Pokémon that are both Dark-type and Template:Type2 have no true weaknesses, as the resistances of the Dark-type cover the weaknesses of Ghost, and vice-versa. One of the greatest advantages of the Dark-type is that they are immune to Template:Type2s. However if a Psychic/Dark type were to be together, then it will have no resistances.

Offense

Dark-type moves, when combating Psychic-types, are especially useful due to their secondary effects; Crunch lowers Defense (an already low stat among Psychic-types), Bite causes Flinching, Faint Attack never misses, Night Slash has a high critical hit ratio while Pursuit hits Pokémon as they switch for double damage. Many Dark-type moves also involve stealing or deception, such as moves like Thief, which steals an opponent's held item, and Snatch, which steals the beneficial effects of an opponent's moves.

Trivia

Officially, this type's Brazilian Portuguese translation is "Noturno" (nocturnal), but at times it is named as "Sombrio" or "Trevas" (darkness) as well. However, Sombrio means Shadow, another type.

Because of Bite's change to Dark from the Normal-type in Generation II, there has been at least one Dark-type move introduced in each generation. Despite this, there is not a Dark-type Pokémon from each generation; Dark is the only type not assigned to a Pokémon introduced in Generation I. This is the opposite situation to the other type introduced in Generation II, Steel.

There has yet to be a Pokémon Gym that specializes in the Dark type. Despite this, there have been three Elite Four members who specialize in Dark-type Pokémon.

Generation V introduced the most Dark-type Pokémon, introducing 16 of the 39.

So far, 9 Dark-type moves has been shown in the anime, the least of all elemental types.

All non-legendary pure Dark-type Pokémon are based off of fox, dog, or cat-like creatures.